Automation or Automatic control is the use of various control systems for execution of required tasks with minimal or reduced human intervention. Automated control systems may range from simple sensing devices to robots and other sophisticated equipment. Automation of operations may encompass the automation of a single operation to the automation of an entire factory. The advantages of automation include reduced time for execution of the tasks, increased operational flexibility, reduced human labor costs, elimination of human errors, or make up for the labor shortage.
Automation in Computer technology has been recently evolving. Automated services are being applied to automate tasks and procedures in an organization. The technology is aimed not at improving the efficiency of current office procedures, but at altering the nature of work altogether. Consider an example of an enterprise which has an infrastructure management team for providing solutions for the requests raised by employees of the enterprise. Requests are logged (input) and classified into specific functional groups. The classified requests are assigned to a member of concerned functional group for resolving the requests. The assigned member of the functional group interacts with the requester to get the missing information (if any). Based on the understanding of the information, the assigned team member solves the problem or suggests a solution to the requester to resolve the request. However, the whole process of classification, assignment and interaction and resolution of the requests is time consuming as they are held manually and are prone to potential human errors that may ultimately affect efficiency of the whole process.
One way of solving the above mentioned issues is by automating individual tasks at multiple stages of the process by use of automated software services or BOTs. BOT is a software application that runs on other software applications. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than humans. For example, an Internet bot, also known as web robot, WWW robot or simply a bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet. BOTs may be designed for understanding the order and flow of activities at each stage of the process, generating its own rules automatically and for validating and self-learning the entire workflows. Typically, the BOTs, in their basic forms, are designed to work independently of the other BOTs.